The Key to the City
by HecatonchiresLM
Summary: Oneshot. BLAME! Xover. While exploring The City, Killy meets its newest inhabitant. BLAME is a manga by Tsutomu Nihei


The Key to the City 

A Oneshot BtVS/BLAME! Crossover

* * *

Killy had been following Cibo's last lead for a very long time. He was searching for pure human genes, uncorrupted by mutation and experimentation. Only with those codes could he escape the city. Ahead, a long silent corridor beckoned. He could see a staircase ascending at the end of it. In the background he could hear the muted whining of some unidentifiable piece of machinery, followed by a muffled, rhythmic thud. Light streamed through arches to his left, and he could see a long drop beyond them.

Advancing, gun as always held firmly in his hand, he reached the top of the steps. A small door was inset in an alcove, the handle shiny from use. The hinges made no noise as he opened the door. Obviously maintained, not abandoned as the majority of the city was. Inside was a small set of rooms. Killy paused, scanning the area. There was a bunch of something he registered as edible hanging from a hook in the wall. He started to reach for it, when a voice made him pause.

"What are you doing in my home".

Killy turned. A woman stood there. Tall, and very thin. She had long brown hair, and her neck reminded him of Cibo's, except it was missing the dataports under Cibo's ears. She was holding a sharpened length of pipe.

"I am looking for net terminal genes. I saw some food, and was going to eat it", Killy replied.

"Well, you can't. Because its mine, and you're in my home, and anyway, its not food, its belladonna, which is a herb and if you ate it you'd die and oh my god, you're the first person I've seen in this place since I got here, and you're.."

She paused.

"You're not human are you?"

"I don't know" said Killy, after a moment. "I do not appear to be very fragile."

"Well, said the girl. You haven't tried to kill me yet, are you safe? Cause I _so_ need to talk to someone right now. "

Killy shrugged.

"Fair enough" said the girl. "I'm Dawn. I've been here for a while and I can't get back because I can't find what I need to open the portal and will you help me and you're hungry that's why you were reaching for the belladonna and what's a net terminal gene?

Killy took a moment to process this. While that was happening the girl ducked out of the room through the doorway she had been standing in and came back with what could be called a plate. She offered it to him.

"Food"

Killy assessed the plate. "I think the. belladonna.", the word was unfamiliar to him, "would be safer. I am quite hardy."

The girl shrugged. "Suit yourself. If you die, I'm pushing you off the ledge outside, before you start to stink up the place."

Killy nodded. It had happened before.

"So what's a net terminal gene, you haven't explained that yet". This was said through a mouthful of... something.

"In order to access the net sphere, I need uncorrupted human genes. They act as an encryption key, allowing access. With these I can escape the city. Leave." Killy considered the girls, Dawn's, earlier words. "You said you can't get back. What level did you come from?"

"Level? I don't know. I was helping Willow do this thing and the next thing I know I'm here. I found a machine that makes stuff you can eat in a corridor not to far from here, and there some water pipes nearby, and the door keeps the wind out. Buffy always told me that if I was lost to find some place defensible, not to far away and wait."

Willow. Buffy. More names. And she didn't know what a level was. Strange.

"And genes. I'm human. I think. How do you check. Maybe I have what you need? You don't have to take to much do you?"

Killy's head snapped up. Her babbling had keep him off balance. He hadn't even thought to check her eyes.

"Hold still for a moment" he said. "I can scan your eyes".

She stilled, no longer hopping from foot to foot. Killy initiated the process, and waited for the results. While he was waiting, she spoke again. "You didn't tell me your name"

"Killy" he said, watching the processing indicator flash in his field of view.

The circling dot changed from red to green. [ANALYSIS: SUCCESS] flashed across his eyesight.

Killy was feeling something he was wholly unaccustomed to. His lips twitched up at the edges for a brief moment. "You're pure. Uncontaminated."

"I wouldn't say pure, because this one time, but we used protection, so uncontaminated, wait, you're saying I'm a match? Hey, lucky you! So can I come? I think if Willow was going to find me, she'd have found me by now and if I stay here alone much longer, I'm going to go nuts"

Killy took another moment to process the flow of information. "Yes. I need a small sample of your blood, or hair. And you may come with me if you wish."

Dawn clapped, and jumped up. "I need to pack a bag. Hey, you know, if I'm your way out of the city, and you're locked in here, does that make me the key to the city, cause like, that's a terrible pun"

Killy looked at the girl. She didn't make sense, and she talked almost as much as Cibo had, but he had found what he was looking for.

**End**

* * *

This is a oneshot. No more. I'm aware Killy talked almost entirely to much. I was thinking about the phrase "Key to the City" and how various plays on it turn up as the title of various stories. I was wondering how I could use it, and then remembered BLAME!, a very very cool manga that has Killy wandering the 'cyber dungeon' looking for pure human genes in order to do... something. It's never clearly explained. Anyway, the city and its huge, twisted plays as much a part in the story as any of the various twisted personalities that inhabit it

Anyway, pretend this happens instead of Cibo becoming some sort of cyber-goth-maiden mother thing, and Killy wandering off to become the father figure for a shiny ball. 

Buffy the Vampire Slayer and associated characters were created by Joss Wedon, and are owned by big companies. I do not own them. DVD box sets available various places for reasonable prices.

BLAME! was created by Tsutomu Nihei, and is available in 10 collected books from Kodansha publishing. Try it out. Scary, gory, lonely sci-fi set in a very very strange city. I found a scanlated version available in a big honking file at boxtorrents.


End file.
